Silent Sam after being torn down
Source (the Daily Wire)
On Monday night a group of protestors at University of North Carolina (UNC) Chappell Hill torn down the confederate statue "Silent Sam". The statue was placed on campus in 1913 to commemorate the 300 alumni of UNC who fought for the Confederate army in the Civil War. University officials say that at 9:20 a group of about 250 protestors brought down the statue. I think that Confederate statues should be displayed on public property like state universities or courthouse, however I do not think that we should be tearing down these monuments. It is important that our history is remember no matter how dark because once you start to erase history, you could be on the path to repeating it. In my opinion it is important for people to know what happened so that they can have a better sense of their history.
Discussion Questions
1. Do you think that the protestors should have torn down "Silent Sam"
2. should other confederate monuments be taken down
I think it was unwise and disrespectful for a group of students to tear down a donated or publicly funded statue. Free speech and thought does not necessitate destruction. There are other ways to voice opinions rather than destroying University property, something that may have symbolic or even familial meaning to others. Confederate monuments should not be taken down. Not only are they important reminders of history, but often these statues, like this one, represent not only the confederacy, but also honor those who participated in the war as a whole. There were many UNC alumni who fought for the Union. If we are to be tolerant and unified as a nation, the uglier facets of our past must be acknowledged and learned from. Acts of destruction such as this will never yield positive results.
ReplyDeleteI believe that the intention and reasoning behind the students' decision to tear down the statue was correct, however, there is definitely a better method to have executed it. I agree with what Daniel said that instead of destroying property, the students could have taken a different route such as protesting or starting a petition to take it down. Tearing it down seems more destructive and disrespectful of others' property rather than an act of patriotism. Moreover, in terms of taking other confederate monuments down, I agree with both Adam and Daniel that it is important to have these monuments as a reminder of America's past and its mistakes. However, if it makes the majority uncomfortable, the statues could be removed and moved to a different location such as a museum specifying in Confederate history. Of course, the museum must not present these statues' history/background in a good light and instead emphasize the flaws of it.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, this is Kathryn Cheong, not Unknown...
DeleteWhile it may have not been prudent for these university students to violently tear down the statue, I think confederate statues should be taken down. There is a fine line between remembering terrible things in history so as not to repeat them, and glorifying figures who carried out these regrettable acts. There have been many bad actors in history, but we do not need to place them on a pedestal in order to remember what they did. To offer an extreme example, we do not keep statues of Hitler in order to remember the Holocaust. Therefore, I find these statues of confederates more offensive than they are educational, and should be taken down.
ReplyDeleteI disagree, we aren't to repeat what happened with slavery, what made you feel that we are going back to slavery and the civil war? And for the Hitler reference: First of all, it's not our history, it's the jews, so there would not be a reason to keep that statue up. Second, as a jew, I can attest that there have in fact, been many commemorations of the terrible tragedies of the Holocaust, many concentration camps are still up, some of Hitlers old statues are still up, not in museums. We should keep them as a memory to NOT repeat it, it will only stir more violence like charlottesville if we tear them down.
Delete- Michael Athanacio
DeleteI think Michael makes an interesting point... I recently watched a movie which my friend claimed was intended to make the watcher uncomfortable. Not everything exists for a positive. And although the statue was not originally intended to commemorate the horrors of the Civil War and slavery, I think that it should now exist to remind everyone of the past, because learning and remembering the past can prevent similar grievances from being committed in the future.
DeleteI agree with Yasmina. The students should have approached their goal of taking down the monument through a more respectful and legal manner; however, I do support their intentions. People do not need monuments to remember terrible or dark actions/decisions in history, especially because I think these monuments serve more to celebrate and idealize the subjects than to remind the public of past mistakes. Moving away from politics, I also think its weird to have a monument commemorating a person who isn't significant to that country. In this situation, for example, the Confederacy was defeated by the Union. We are not the Confederacy and yet we have monuments celebrating them. We don't have monuments for the British soldiers we once fought or the Mexican soldiers we defeated along the border, and both of these are part of our history too. So while I think that confederate monuments should be taken down, I also believe that this can be done with more tact and formality.
ReplyDeleteThis is Sophie Louie.
DeleteI also agree with Yasmina. I do not think that we should be displaying and glorifying Confederate figures when they were fighting for such a terrible and selfish cause--slavery. However, the way the students approached "dishonoring" the Confederates was distasteful and disrespectful. Protest is fine and encouraged, but they were destroying property.
ReplyDeleteAlthough the Confederacy was apart of history, I think the Civil War can be remembered in different ways rather than in statues. Majority of these statues are in the states that contain the largest African American population so I believe it is disrespectful to display these racist figures who supported the enslavement of their people. History can be remembered in other ways, such as through teaching in schools, textbooks, and documentaries. A figure embodying our racist past should not look down upon those who's ancestors were enslaved.
DeleteBTW these last two posts were from Zoe Wilson.
I do agree that it was wrong for these students to use destruction and force against public property, I do agree with their motive and what they were trying to say. I do not believe that we should be keeping statues of the Confederacy because if you think about it, the Confederates were fighting for slavery. Why would we want to remember that? While yes, it is an important part of our history, it is a horrible and awful part of America's history. These statues feel like they are congratulating the Confederates who fought for this awful idea. However, the students should of found a better way to protest other than destruction, but their motive was correct in my opinion. Instead they should of created a peaceful protest and tried to take the statue down legally.
ReplyDeleteTo add on to my first comment, I just wanted to say that their are so many things to remember in America's history that is great and inspiring. The confederacy is not one of these things since they were fighting for such an awful concept, slavery. We should not be representing this motive with statues since it is not something that America is proud of. Slavery was a horrible and major issue in America's past and should not be celebrated with a statue. I do not think that these students should use violence against property and I know that this has happened before in many occasions, but their motive is right in my opinion.
DeleteAlthough the Confederate statue is commemorating a part of history that is ugly and racist, there is a better way to take down these statues in a respectful manner. The Confederacy's history should not be something that someone is proud of as slavery is one of the core reasons why the Civil War was fought. Although there were other beliefs that the Confederates embodied, such as states' rights, slavery is a stain on American history that should not be made into a statue. Although the statue was taken down in a manner that should not be tolerated, I understand their reasoning toward the statue.
ReplyDeleteJust because we don't have a statue of a Confederate soldier does not mean that we completely forget that the Civil War happened. We still learn about the atrocities at school and it appears in the media. The history doesn't just go away. In my opinion, the statue should have come down. There are better ways to take it down, other than destruction of property. The students could have started a petition or asked the school to take it down peacefully. This violent act just makes them look bad, and that is not helping their cause. Although I agree with their intentions, the execution should have been thought through better. We can learn different ways of getting our opinions across by studying history. The peaceful protests led by MLK Jr. are one effective way of getting ones opinion across. Usually, statues are used to glorify a person, so society uses different ways to educate and remind the public of our history.
ReplyDeleteI do agree with why the students protested and wanted to take down confederate statues, however I don't think it was right to do it violently and vandalize the statue itself since it is a piece of history. But I can understand the reason why those statues are still standing since it is a part of history and history will always be there to look back to, taking down the statues (in a forceful manner) won't do much because what happened has already happened. In the recent years we have seen so many confederate statues being taken down have been taken down like Robert E Lee's statue in 2017 which was also done in a violent matter. I believe that it is okay to want to take the statues down and instead replace them with monuments to honor those who have been murdered by white supremacy but instead do it in a non violent and respectful manner.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the students actions, just not in the violent way in which they did so. We don't need statues of confederates to "remember the past." That just sounds like an excuse for more conservative individuals to have statues of confederates up. The direction the U.S. is going justifies the removal of this statue. I have a few personal examples about it as well. One, the school my cousin goes to, previously known as Jordan Middle School (Palo Alto) has changed its name to Greene Middle School because the individual Jordan was named after believed in eugenics. Also, my mothers high school got renamed as well. Previously known as Robert E. Lee High School, it is now known as Margaret Long Wisdom High School, and this is in Texas.
ReplyDeleteCertainly it's important to preserve the history represented in that statue, however the real history of that statue is WHY it was erected and WHO erected it. The statue should have stayed up, but should have had a little extra sign or plaque explaining the dark years of America that led to its creation, or we could just remember its history by putting it in a museum, inaction or complacency is accepting only the early 1900s southerner perspective, hardly a good one. Other confederate monuments can be taken down, this one at least has vague merit as a memorial, but honoring enemy generals by publicly flouting them as statues may be over the line, they belong in a museum dedicated to the history of racism in the South, not in the South.
ReplyDeletePersonally I think the statues should be taken down mainly due to their racist origins. The statues were erected after the civil war (Nobody made these statues before, or even during the civil war, it just doesn't make sense), to remind the African Americans still living in the south that the whites still held power. Why else would these statues had been erected then? One could argue that some confederate soldiers were decent human beings, and because of that they shouldn't have these statues taken down. And for all we know, maybe some of them were actually just patriotic boys fighting for "freedom" of their state (pretty ironic). But since these statues represent racism, bigotry and everything wrong with modern society, they shouldn't be allowed to persist. To conclude, due to the extremely racist nature of the statues, I think they should be taken down.
ReplyDeleteWhat the protesters did definitely was not legal but I can not say that it was morally wrong. I believe that in this day and age there are enough documents and online resources to remember the history of this country and the history of the world. In my eyes this statue was merely a gratuitous waste of land. There are still plenty of ways to remember "Silent Sam" without the statue. Take this link for instance: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silent_Sam. I believe that these protesters have exercised their first amendment rights in a non-violent method and have paved way for potentially a new garden of sorts that could aid humanity in a way that the bronze statue never could. I do not necessarily mean that all statues or specifically, confederate statues should be taken down, immediately, however, in the long run how can humanity ever wish to achieve maximum efficiency if we are not fully utilizing every patch of land to its fullest potential? When events such as this occur, it is important to take into consideration the full pros and cons and ask, Was this statue beneficial to society? Is it generating revenue? I think the true mindset of the protesters was: "We can do better than this" which leads me to conclude that their actions were morally justified.
ReplyDeleteProtesting against such monuments that represent Confederates is totally acceptable since we live in a democracy and criticism is essential for policy-making, however, the destruction of property is a crime and not justifiable. These statues showcase Confederate leaders who believed in a racist and abusive idea, slavery, but these students don't have the right to damage property. I agree with the students that these statues should be taken down but in a more civilized and organized manner. The rest of the statues should be taken down as they stand as a reminder of racism and glorify the wrong-doings a nation which no longer exists.
ReplyDeleteI believe the protesters should not have torn down the statue. While certainly anti-Confederate sentiment is understandable given the magnitude of the Civil War as well as the portrayal of Confederates as "rebels," expressing this sentiment via destruction is not the wisest way. Furthermore, every statue has a purpose, whether it be for ornamentation or commemoration purposes. In the case of "Silent Sam," tearing down the statue shows disrespect for the alumni of UNC. It is important to remember that the Confederacy, despite its secession, is still part of American history. Even if the students dislike anything Confederate related, they should not use their antagonism to justify their destructive actions. Many descendants of Confederates still live in the United States today; people have different opinions regarding the Confederate states of America, and, especially in a country that promotes diversity and freedom, these opinions should be respected.
ReplyDeleteI agree with previous responses in that I understand and agree with the intent behind these protesters tearing down the statues. What the confederate statues stand for is something ugly and an unforgettable time in our history. Other people have said that statues like these remind us of our history, but there are other ways people remember the past. We learn about it in schools and in other places, it's not like if we take down the statues, people will forget. Something that monumental to our history can never be forgotten. However, these statues could've been taken down in a more orderly manner through the proper official channels, and if this is down, there might be more understanding on the other side in the people's mission, rather than expressing their opinions in a crude way.
ReplyDeleteI don't believe that Silent Sam should have been taken down. Not only does this act not achieve anything other than increase tensions between opposing political parties, history is still history. Statues are meant to commemorate people who have shown heroic or admirable qualities. In this case, there were a group of students who risked their lives to protect something that they valued. While I assume that the students took down the statue because they wanted to make a statement about racism in the US, destruction of public property is not the most convincing way to achieve this.
ReplyDeleteI believe the monument shouldn't have been taken down. The protestors have every right to protest against the monuments. However, the solution isn't physically taking the statue down. This is destruction of property, which should never be tolerated in our democracy. A more peaceful protest would show that the times of evil in or country shouldn't be glorified. Destroying the actual monument gives people a reason to disagree with the protestors' cause.
ReplyDeleteAlthough the intent of the protesters was probably good, the manner in which they behaved showed otherwise. What they did, without permission, and regardless what the statue was, was really disrespectful toward their school. A more effective way would be to reason with the school and persuade them to remove such statues instead of forcibly doing it themselves. It sends the wrong image. Additionally, like others have said, it is important to remember our history and not repeat the mistakes of the past. These statues are not necessarily there to glorify certain people but to leave a mark and reminder of the past.
ReplyDelete